A question for you!

[moisturiser]

Hi all,
Having been pretty scathing of low carb diets (I thought they were faddy and knew a few people who lost a lot of weight on them and then put it all back on), I'm now approaching trying the Paleo diet.

I'm terrified!

Basically I had an eating disorder 10 years ago. Months of eating 400 calories a day led to severe depression and a binge eating disorder. I ended up putting many stones on, it was absolutely awful. So I'm very scared of that happening again.

I've lost 4.5 stones of that over the last 10 years by eating low fat, and moderate carbs. But I've not been focusing for the last few years (have maintained though), so I'm only just coming back to that to lose the last couple of stones. I have a couple of friends doing Paleo and they've been raving to me about it (I'm in a lot of pain, have an inflammatory condition and they told me Paleo helps pain) and I'm now reading Briffa's book and I have to say I'm feeling very, very convinced.

So yes, I'd like to know how easy it is to maintain weight loss and this woe. I can't put myself in a position where I put masses on again. And although I'm hungry and a bit miserable doing my calorie counting, low fat diet, I do maintain my weight with ease. I do see that you can eventually eat some carbs to maintain and that people lose a taste for them and also feel unwell going back to them, but there do seem to be people who struggle with not putting weight back on when they fall off the wagon. I'm by no means a choc/carb a holic, but I do like pasta and a little chocolate now and again in particular.

TIA

[NooMyx]

Hey there. Re. maintaining loss, if you lose weight with any method and then go back to eating the way you used to (when you were gaining it), you'll put the weight back on. Having said that, I do think a paleo-style / moderate or low carb "diet" is easier and more reasonable to stick to for good than low fat diets. I think myself that most grief people report over low carbing is caused by them trying to do low fat at the same time.

I feel your pain tbh. I put 4 stones on when I was recovering from eating disorders. For me it felt an inevitable part of recovery at the time, but losing it wasn't fun; especially when I was constantly worried about relapsing.

People have never stopped telling me low carb is a passing fad, that no one can do it for more than a few weeks, and that I'll struggle as soon as I'll stop, even after years of eating like this now...

[moisturiser]

Thank you for responding. It's great to hear that someone's been in a similar boat but maintaining this way of life now.